Church of San Bonaventura in Caltagirone
The seventeenth-century Church of San Bonaventura is one of the few buildings that fully survived the terrible earthquake of 1693 which destroyed most of the monuments and palaces of eastern Sicily.
The façade is simple and unadorned, it consists of two superimposed levels connected by volutes , in which the architectural order is not defined. The lower level is marked by four pilasters and is enriched by the carved stone portal crowned by a broken tympanum, embellished with polychrome majolica elements including two panels depicting the Madonna della Salute and San Francesco d'Assisi.
All inside, the presbytery is enriched by a remarkable fresco depicting Saint Bonaventure surrounded by angels and cherubs and reproducing, with the trompe l'oeil technique, architectural scenographies that flee upwards.
Inside the subdivision into five arches for side gives rise to ten chapels, in which it is possible to appreciate various sculptural and pictorial works of great importance including: the statuette of the Madonna della Salute, by Antonello Gagini and the Crucifix by Fra Unmile da Petralia.
